Moby-Dick or, The Whale (Penguin Classics)
by Herman Melville
from Penguin Classics
Written with wonderfully redemptive humor, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself.
Introduction by Andrew Delbanco
Explanatory Commentary by Tom Quirk
Great American Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Edgar Allan Poe
from Dover Publications
Moby-Dick (Dover Giant Thrift Editions)
by Herman Melville
from Dover Publications
Billy Budd and Other Tales
by Herman Melville
from Signet Classics
This edition of Billy Budd includes a Foreword, Biographical Note, and Afterword by James Gunn.
Aboard the warship Bellipotent, the young orphan Billy Budd was called the handsome sailor. Billy was tall, athletic, nobel looking; he was friendly, innocent, helpful and ever-cheerful. He was a fierce fighter and a loyal friend. All the men and officers liked him...
All but one: Master-at-Arms Claggart. Envious, petty Claggart plotted to make Billy's life miserable. But when a fear of mutinies swept through the fleet, Claggart realized he could do more than just torment the Handsome Sailor...He could frame Billy Budd for treason...
Moby-Dick: or, The Whale(Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editio)
by Herman Melville
from Penguin (Non-Classics)
Billy Budd and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)
by Herman Melville
from Penguin Classics
Melville's last work, Billy Budd, Sailor (written between 1888 and 1891), is considered by many to be his finest work. Also in this volume is Melville's Piazza Tales, among them "Bartleby the Scrivener," "Benito Cereno," and "The Encantadas."
Billy Budd, Sailor (Enriched Classics)
by Herman Melville
from Pocket
A handsome young sailor is unjustly accused of plotting mutiny in this timeless tale of the sea.
This Enriched Classic Edition includes:
A concise introduction that gives readers important background information
A chronology of the author's life and work
A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context
An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations
Detailed explanatory notes
Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work
Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction
A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience
Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.
Moby-Dick (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics)
by Herman Melville
from Barnes & Noble Classics
On a previous voyage, a mysterious white whale had ripped off the leg of a sea captain named Ahab. Now the crew of the Pequod, on a pursuit that features constant adventure and horrendous mishaps, must follow the mad Ahab into the abyss to satisfy his unslakeable thirst for vengeance. Narrated by the cunningly observant crew member Ishmael, Moby-Dick is the tale of the hunt for the elusive, omnipotent, and ultimately mystifying white whale—Moby Dick.
On its surface, Moby-Dick is a vivid documentary of life aboard a nineteenth-century whaler, a virtual encyclopedia of whales and whaling, replete with facts, legends, and trivia that Melville had gleaned from personal experience and scores of sources. But as the quest for the whale becomes increasingly perilous, the tale works on allegorical levels, likening the whale to human greed, moral consequence, good, evil, and life itself. Who is good? The great white whale who, like Nature, asks nothing but to be left in peace? Or the bold Ahab who, like scientists, explorers, and philosophers, fearlessly probes the mysteries of the universe? Who is evil? The ferocious, man-killing sea monster? Or the revenge-obsessed madman who ignores his own better nature in his quest to kill the beast?
Scorned by critics upon its publication, Moby-Dick was publicly derided during its author’s lifetime. Yet Melville’s masterpiece has outlived its initial misunderstanding to become an American classic of unquestionably epic proportions.
Includes an extensive Dictionary of Sea Terms (37 pages).
Carl F. Hovde taught at Columbia University for thirty-five years. An editor for the Princeton University Press edition of Henry David Thoreau, he has also written about Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry James, and William Faulkner.
Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street (The Art of the Novella series)
by Herman Melville
from The Art of the Novella
This beautifully packaged series of classic novellas includes the works of Anton Chekhov, Colette, Henry James, Herman Melville, and Leo Tolstoy. These collectible editions are the first single-volume publications of these classic tales, offering a closer look at this underappreciated literary form and providing a fresh take on the world's most celebrated authors.
The rat race of Wall Street is turned on its head when Bartleby the copier decides that he simply "would prefer not to" in this absorbing early modernist tale.
Bartleby and Benito Cereno (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Herman Melville
from Dover Publications
+++
